AS HAMS WE ARE LICENSED TO TRANSMIT DATA ON 902-928, 2.4GHZ, AND 5.8GHZ BANDS AT FULL LEGAL LIMIT.EQUIPMENT CAN BE PURCHASED FROM SEVERAL VENDORS SUCH AS "ALVARION".FOR A REASONABLE INVESTMENT A HAM CLUB COULD PUT A 100WATT WIRELESS ACESS UNIT ON A TOWER AND GET 30-50 MILE COVERAGE WITH HIGH SPEED DATA!WIRELESS COMPANIES ARE ALREADY MOVING INTO THESE BANDS AT GREAT NUMBERS, BUT THE ARE LIMITED TO 1WATT MAXIMUM POWER LEVEL AND ARE UN-LICENSED AT THIS TIME.IF WE AS HAMS DON'T SOON OCCUPY THESE BANDS WITH OUR OWN LICENSED WIRELESS NETWORKS, SOON THESE SAME COMPANIES MAY BE GRANTED LICENSE FOR OUR BANDS!

I fear amateur radio is going to either lose 2.4 GHz to these Wireless Internet Service Providers (WISPs) or all of HF to BPL.

The WISPs are out there now, making money, in large part because they are free of the license requirements.

I sometimes feel like I am both sides of the fence on this issue. I recently moved from an urban apartment to a semi-rural house. The house is on one acre, and free of CC&Rs (so for the forst time in my life I have been able to erect a HF dipole). The downside is that after having cable and cable Internet, the XYL and myself have become addicted to broadband Internet.

Cable is not available at the new QTH. DSL also is not available. Our only two Internet options were a WISP (operating in 2.4GHz unlicensed spectrum) or satellite (still quite expensive). We chose the WISP.

Talking with the WISP installer I became motivated to do some research on this. What I am learning is that the WISPs seems to be as afraid of ham radio as ham radio is of BPL.

It concerns me that I hear so little from ARRL about this issue. I am sure there are those who will disagree with me but most view the HF bands as a more valuable asset to ham radio than the 2.4 GHz band.

I am learning that the only people who seem to be making money at this are the ones who are operating in unlicensed spectrum (the equipment & license costs for licensed spectrum seem to wipe out any potential profit.) The 2.4 GHz spectrum is one of the most popular because the proliferation of consumer 802.11b devices has made the equipment costs relatively affordable.

A few WISPs are in the 900MHz spectrum (again, unlicensed, and again shared with amateur radio). Listening to a QSO, apparantly there is also some WISP activity on 5.8 GHz, but I am not familiar with that.

My opinion is right now the WISP activity on all of these bands is far exceeding the amateur activity there. As I said if 2.4GHz is a concern then ARRL should take notice. I fear they have already been outflanked while they were spending so much time fighting BPL.

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